Don't know if this is repeating anything from above (forgive me if I haven't got the time to read this mighty tome) but on the BBC last night there was a programme on New Orleans and Katrina. Some of the points raised on the telly by the talking heads were:

The building of the levees didn't take into account the soil, which is a soft clay likened to playdough, and as a result the levees were a lot weaker than they were planned to be.

Due to man's intervention the coastal marshes and islands that have attenuated the power of hurricans in the past have been lost making the city even more vulnerable.

The Corps of Engineers don't have the mandate of the government (Senate or Congress - I can't remember) or the money to rebuild the levees to anything other than what was there before Katrina (i.e. the same strength as those that failed).

That large areas of the city that were destroyed shouldn't be rebuilt, especially as the hurricanes are currently getting bigger, stronger and more frequent.

The more reclamation that gets done the more vunlerable the city becomes (less protection from the weather and lowering the ground level even more due to the pumping out of the ground water behind the levees).





It was horrifying to see just how devastated New Orleans is now the flood waters have been pumped out.